


Terrible Two’s

by Myworldoffanfanfiction



Category: Casualty (TV)
Genre: Alternative Universe - Child, Cal is a great brother, Cal tries, Ethan is a toddler, Ethans Cute, Everyone loves Ethan, Gen, don’t ask
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:07:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22431583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Myworldoffanfanfiction/pseuds/Myworldoffanfanfiction
Summary: Ethan is Cal’s baby brother, Cal has been looking after Ethan since he was born. Here is a day in the life of the two of them-Summary isn’t that good, but I think you lot are going to like this one
Relationships: Ethan Hardy & Cal Knight
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Terrible Two’s

**Author's Note:**

> Ethan is literally 2 years old, btw 
> 
> This was supposed to be longer but I get excited to post it

Going to work with the thought of ‘can I trust this new babysitter’ wasn’t good, especially when that same question eats at your brain all day long. Cal had gotten a new babysitter for Ethan, if you didn’t catch on, and he was very worried. The woman seemed nice, pretty, and was quite young so it wasn’t like Cal had anything against her, but he somewhat did. Maybe it was jealousy of her being able to stay with his little brother whilst he had too work or it was just his big brother senses playing on him, he didn’t know, he just wanted to get through the day as quickly as possible to go home to see his 2 year old baby. But of course, if you count time it always goes slower, and on this day Cal dubbed time an actual asshole. 

Everyone in the hospital loved Ethan, either having seen photos or actually meeting the toddler when Cal brought him down one day because he couldn’t find anyone to look after the blondie (and who better to look after your little brother with the people you work day in and day out with?) but Ethan has instantly latched onto Lily, who was rather shocked at the way Ethan would toddle after her when he was put down onto the floor of the break room by Cal at the boys persistence. He followed Lily around for about ten minutes before Lily picked him up and acted the whole day like normal, occasionally checking in on the toddler when felt necessary. After that day, all Ethan babbled on about was Lily and how cool her work was (Cal has stopped trying to get his little brother to like his job after the third try of asking ‘what about Cal, nibbles?’ which would lead to a ‘But Lily did this *insert amazing thing Lily did that day*’) 

“Cal, your needed” Charlie said as he rushed past the break room door, poked his head through then left. Cal sighed ‘better get back to my job..’ 

-^*^- 

“How’s the baby?” Max asked with a grin, nudging Cal’s arm with his shoulder as he stood next to the taller of the two, who flicked through his resus papers for the day 

“He’s good.. you sound like it’s my actual baby, like I’m the father” Cal grins slightly and shakes his head at the thought. He was the toddlers father in a way, but not the way that he was biologically, Ethan had been born just before their mum died, and their dad had just left him like he did to Cal for all those years. 

“You kinda are” Max shrugged and started to type up something on the computer 

“Yeah.. I guess I am” Cal said fondly and stopped reading, thinking back to the time Ethan was running around the living room and tripped up, only to sniffle and look up at Cal with big sad brown eyes, which Cal couldn’t help but laugh fondly at at the time “He got into the flour the other day” Cal said and pulled out his phone, showing Max the photo of Ethan with the white flour all over the toddlers body, who was sitting on the floor with a big grin on his face as his fist went closer and closer to his mouth, which Cal had interjected just after taking the photo in lightning speed. 

“Oh god no” Max laughed at the photo “You poor man, you had to clean that up” He snickers evilly 

“Not without his help, he always helps” Cal added in “Although he kept trying to pick up the flour with his hands, which really didn’t help” but Cal appreciated the offer. 

“Better than I was at that age, I was a menace” Max grinned as Cal turned off this photo and nodded 

“Me too, crazy how good he is though” he sighed.. then sighed again but a bit more sad “I wanna see him now, man, I just really miss him today, got a new babysitter and all and he can be really shy” Now Caleb, dont mention your jealousy at the babysitter lady because she can be with your lil bro and you can’t, he thought silently. 

“I get it, you only got two more hours Caleb” Max smiled and pat him on the arm gently, going off to do whatever he needed to do. Cal smiled back as he went. 2 hours wasn’t that long.

-^*^- 

Two hours was actually very long. Cal was sure someone made his watch on his wrist go even slower. Cal was starting to get antsy, all he wanted to do was go see his baby brother, yet he knew he couldn’t. It was practically torture, not being able to see the one he truly loved with all his heart. During breaks, he would go on and on about Ethan and his little ‘quirks and adventures’ as Cal had dubbed them. He told Robyn about how Ethan once got spaghetti stuck in his hair and tried to get it out himself, Rambled on about how Ethan would go really shy when going out to the shops to Lofty, and told Charlie about how Ethan said he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up.. along with a Dr from Dr who. 

But after all of his talking about his baby brother, he finally got to see him. 3 o’clock came around and as Cal wasn’t busy, he rushed to grab his stuff from his locker and practically ran out of the hospital, going straight to his car and almost breaking the speed law by going too fast. 

He made it back to his small little home in record time, jumping out of the car and going to the door, unlocking it and entering quickly, making sure to close it again. 

“Nibbles, Cals home!” Cal called out, putting his keys away in their normal spot and going into the living room. He saw the babysitter and Ethan both watching tv, the little boy on the ladies lap as he sucked his thumb, a nasty habit that needed to be broken soon. Ethan looked up as he saw a figure in the doorway out of the corner of his eye and gasped slightly, his thumb falling out of his mouth and he started to wriggle out of the ladies hold, who looked up also and smiled as she placed Ethan on the floor 

“Cal! Cal! It’s Cal, Emmy!” He called as he ran/toddled quickly to his older brother, Cal picking him up when he was close enough and spun him around, kissing his slightly chubby cheeks and held him close “Cal!” He squealed out in delight, trying to pull away

“I missed you Nibbles, I gotta give you kissies!” He grinned and kept doing it, much to the boys displeasure 

“Watching the show, Cal! Imma gonna miss it!” He complained and both Emmy and Cal laughed, Cal putting the boy onto the floor as he rushed to climb up onto the sofa, he was quite short for a two year old. 

Cal looked at Emmy and smiled “How was he?” He knew Ethan wasn’t a bratty kid, he rarely got into trouble, and when he did have to be told off it was either a misunderstanding on Ethan’s part of if it wasn’t then the boy would take it lightly. 

“An angel, although he did have to have a bath after lunch” Emmy said and ruffled the boys baby fine hair 

“Ah, trying to wear your food instead of it huh?” Cal chuckled and reached over to lightly tickle the boys tummy, knowing it was his weak spot as the baby (a baby in Cals eyes) flopped onto his back laughing and tried to grab Cal’s much bigger hand off of his tummy 

Cal now dubbed this all worth the agonisingly slow time. 

-^*^- 

Cal’s alarm on his phone was what woke the man up the next morning, groaning and rolling over to stop the piecing noise to his left. Cal grumbled something that definitely wasn’t English and sat up, yawning wide and loudly. He looked over to his right side and saw a little figure curled up under the covers, a tuff of blond hair poking out of those covers. Ah, so Ethan snuck out of his room and got into Cal’s again. Cal sighed fondly and rubbed the toddlers back gently, laying back down and hugging the baby to his chest gently, trying to slowly wake him up. Ethan made a little noise that made Cal practically melt on the spot and the big brown eyes made their return as he opened his eyes slowly and sleepily 

“Cal?” Ethan asked gently, looking up at his older brother and smiling softly when he saw him “Hello..” he made a little wave with his hand and snuggled closer, fitting perfectly on his chest in a little ball like a kitten. Cal kissed him on the top of the head and kept rubbing his back, making sure Ethan didn’t fall asleep because how was Cal supposed to move him when he was asleep to get to work? When the boy wasn’t even asleep it was still difficult for Cal to leave the house, especially yesterday. 

“Hey nibbles, we gotta go downstairs to eat, yeah?” Cal said gently and started to sit up, keeping an arm around the boys body so he could latch his arms around Cal’s neck so he wouldn’t fall and Cal had an arm around him so he wouldn’t slip when he stood. Cal stood up and Ethan did what Cal was expecting, latch on. Cal made his way down the stairs as the toddler babbled to him about what not and soon enough the toddler was in his high chair. Cal clipped in the chair tray plus the two year old and went off to look for something for his baby brother to eat. Cal found some grapes and a few crackers that the boy should be able to eat around this age. 

Cal went back over to Ethan and placed the food down “There you go.. a lovely breakfast” Cal sometimes doubted his ability to look after his baby brother, having no real experience with other babies and wanting to raise Ethan he best he could. He was ashamed to say he didn’t even know if Ethan should still have a lunch-time-nap bottle or if Ethan had stopped using the dummy too early, having only been around one when Cal took them off of the younger blondie slowly. Ethan seemed content enough most days, never saying anything to Cal’s face that he disliked him or that he couldn’t take care of a baby and was such a failure to their family, but Ethan was only two years old and probably didn’t know what those words meant at the moment, but that didn’t mean Ethan didn’t at least think it- oh what was Cal on about, this was Ethan! His baby brother, who was now trying to made a grape and cracker sandwich 

“Nibbles be careful,” Cal reached over and grabbed the grape-cracker sandwich, pulling it apart “Don’t want another mess” Cal smiled and kissed the baby on his cheek, standing up to grab himself some toast. Whilst he waited for it too pop, he checked his messages, (although he only did that once looking up too check on Ethan, who was happily swinging his little legs and babbling away as he ate) one message in particular was from Emmy, saying how she couldn’t be babysitting Ethan today because her mother was in hospital. 

Cal sighed, sent a nice text back to Emmy, and grinned up at his little brother “Wanna come down to Cal’s work today, Nibbles?” 

“Lily!” He gasped and Cal chuckled, shaking his head 

“She might be there, we will see if she is when we arrive” Cal kept grinning as he took the boy out of the highchair and went upstairs to get them both dressed. 

-^*^- 

20 minutes later, a very happy Ethan was talking to Cal with his left hand gripped on his favourite bunny toy as he looked up at his older brother who held his right hand gently, and that older brother had the toddlers hand in his left and the babies folded up buggy in the other, the toddlers bag slung over his shoulder as he tried to unlock the car with everything going on at once. Ethan was well behaved during this old routine of ‘Cal struggling to get the boot of the car open’, always sitting down on the step to the house and waiting patiently, sometimes talking to Cal and sometimes staying silent (he mainly stayed silent when he saw other people walking down the street having always been so shy. 

Once Cal finally got everything put away, he closed the boot and picked Ethan up, opening the door and putting him in his car seat gently and buckling him in. Cal went around the car and got into the drivers seat, starting the car and soon enough they were off. 

“Why am I coming to work, Cal?” Ethan asked quietly as he kicked his legs gently, kicking the back of the passenger seat harsh enough to make a small sound 

“Because Cal said so, Nibbles, and stop kicking the chair” Cal grinned and reached over to grab the little toddlers legs in a gently hold around his ankles, making Ethan squeal which turned into giggles easily as he tried to get his legs back from Cal’s trap. 

“Hey, no fair!” Ethan giggled and pulled his legs away from Cal finally, who smiled fondly but kept an eye on the road. 

Driving with Ethan when he was younger was hell, he hated the car with all of his might. He would kick and scream and whine and cry until he was let out of the car seat and he would have to hold and cuddle Ethan until his sniffles stopped, which was normally around 20 minutes if not more on a bad day, but now Ethan loved it, always looking out the window and telling Cal what he saw (recently his favourite was a dog), swinging his legs and singing along to the music on the radio even if he didn’t actually know the real words. 

Cal didn’t like driving with him either, not that he disliked Ethan, it was more that he didn’t quite enjoy the fear of actually getting into a crash with the toddler in the back seat. The fear was worse when Ethan was younger, especially because his whines sounded so pitiful Cal’s brain played tricks on him and he thought Ethan was actually hurt, but even now that Ethan was slightly older, Cal’s brain still likes to come to the worse possible answer. 

They successfully got to the ED, Cal getting out of the car once parking and going around to unbuckle the toddler from his car seat. Ethan cling onto Cal as soon as his older brother picked him up and put him on his hip, Cal then going around to the boot to grab Ethan’s and his own bag. Cal closed and locked the boot and made his way into the hospital, Ethan bouncing slightly on Cal’s hip gently in excitement 

“Gonna go see Lofty, and-and Robyn, and Alicia and Lily!” He grinned as he put his head on Cal’s shoulder, his hand over Cal’s heart to hear the light thumb of its beat

“Your excited, huh little man?” Cal bounced him gently, making Ethan squeal and nod at his older brothers question “Well I’m glad” he blew a raspberry on the toddlers cheek and made his way to reception 

At the desk, Lofty was typing something up on the computer when he looked up and grinned “There’s my favourite boy!” He chuckled and took Ethan into his arms, bouncing him “How are you, Ethan? Keeping your brother awake every night, still?” 

Ethan made a little giggle noise and hid his face in the crook of Loftys neck, shaking his head. 

“Not anymore” His muffled, whiny but not voice came out and both Cal and Loft laughed fondly at him. Lofty then turning to Cal 

“How are you too, mate? No babysitter?” He smiled and absently started to rock Ethan in his arms 

“Nah, she’s busy today, so I thought Nibbles could stay here for my shift for today” He grinned and rubbed Ethan’s cheek gently with the back of his finger

“Oh course, I’m sure he’s always welcome” He grinned and pat Ethan on the back, passing him back over to Cal as Lofty swapped the toddler for said toddlers bag “Break room?” He nodded towards the bag he now held 

“Yeah please” Cal said and kept his eyes on Ethan as he looked around wondrously, probably for Lily. 

-^*^- 

“Cal, what’s that?” Ethan asked from where he was seated on the counter in the break room, his bag open so if Ethan needed or wanted something when Cal couldn’t get it then the boy could get it himself. Ethan was pouring to the stethoscope that was our around Cal’s neck just minutes before the boy asked. 

Call looked at his baby brother and grinned “a stethoscope, it helps me hear people’s heart. Want me to try on you?” Cal asked as he lifted the end to Ethan, who grinned and nodded frantically 

“Please Cal!” He clapped his hands and kicked his legs gently 

“Alright, here goes nothing, Nibbles.. oh you’ve got to be quiet for me whilst I do it, okay?” He smiled and put the end to Ethan’s chest, the toddler squirming with how cold it was “Oh I hear it! Very healthy, Nibbles” he pulls it away and kisses the boys cheek “Perfect” 

Ethan grinned and looked down at the place the stethoscope was before “Healthy heart” He mumbled to himself then looked up at Cal “You go work now?” He tilted his head to the left 

“Yeah soon, sorry Nibbles, we gotta wait for someone to look after you though” Cal booped the boy on the nose and pulled out the boys soft building blocks the toddler was obsessed with. He gently threw them at Ethan’s head, making the baby laugh hysterically that followed with a ‘again!’ 

Cal had to go to cubicles when Rita came into the break room, promising Cal too look after the toddler for a while until she could swap with someone else. 

-^*^- 

When Cal came into the break room during his own break, he saw Connie sitting on the sofa watching Ethan on the floor as he crawled quickly around the place looking for the bricks he probably was just throwing. Connie’s smile was fond and soft, not a normal look you’d see on Connies face during work. 

Cal grinned and went over to the kettle to make himself a cup of tea, looking down at Ethan and waiting for him to notice Cal was in the room. It took all of five seconds for Ethan to look up at Cal in shock, then bursting into a grin as he stood and rushed over to him 

“Cal!” He said as he ran up to his older brother with his arms wide open “Cal it’s you!” 

Cal bent down to pick the boy up into his arms, throwing him into the air slightly as he lifted him up, then bringing him down again into a soft hug “I missed you, Nibbles” 

“I missed you too! Me and Connie were playing blocks” he looks back at Connie with a shy smile, always getting shy when he explained something he did with another person to Cal 

“Really? That’s amazing!” He grinned at his brother then smiled thankfully at Connie, who nodded her head at him with a smile and stood up, going up to the brothers 

“He was an angel, as always” Connie smiled at Ethan as he boy blushed and hid in Cal’s neck at the comment 

“Well I’m glad” He bounced Ethan slightly and turned back to his tea, doing it easily with one hand. Cal had mastered the skill over the years, and Ethan had learnt not to squirm around a lot if possible because the water was hot and could burn them both.

Connie smiles fondly at the two brothers, then left as Charlie called her for something. 

-^*^- 

The end of the day came along and Cal came into the break room only to find Ethan- 

Wasn’t there. 

Cal panicked, looking under the sofa, in the cupboards, then looked at the open door in the back of the room. Someone left that one open. 

Cal rushed out the room, looking down the hallway to find any traces of Ethan, sadly he found none, the boy being so quiet and shy meant that he wouldn’t dare to touch anything on the floor and/or in his reach, which was a blessing at times but not when that same little angel was literally missing. 

Cal rushed down the hallway, keeping and eye and ear out for his baby brother. Just as he turned the second corridor, Cal bumped into Robyn, who looked panicked also 

“Where’s Ethan?” Cal asked quickly, not nothing to see if Robyn was okay as he knew she would be and Ethan was his priority at the moment. 

“Charlie just found him, come with me” She beckoned him to follow her as she rushed down the corridor, Cal closely behind her. Robyn took Cal to RESUS. No.. 

Robyn opened the door quickly for Cal, who instantly saw Connie, Charlie and Rita crowding around one small, coughing violently, scared little boy, that little boy being Ethan. Cal rushed over, being so tall he could see over Rita’s head as he watched his brother get hooked up to machines he knew but didn’t bother categorising at the time as his big brown eyes screamed terrified. 

“Ethan?! What happened” He didn’t take his eyes away from the shaking form in front of him as he spoke, thinking of he did look away his baby brother would disappear completely. 

“We found him in a storage cupboard, we think he’s inhaled some bleach fumes” Rita said as she turned around to look up at Ethan, her fear was practically radiating for the little boy they had all grown to love 

“Fuck..” Cal took a step back, knowing it would help to give them all a little bit of space to help his brother better, but Cal was close enough he could see the baby as they looked down his throat and did all of the tests Cal had taken years of school to master and know. 

“Cal, he’s going to be okay” Rita put her hand on his shoulder, then turning quickly when Connie started to say what she needed. Once Rita and Robyn, who went along with Rita to help, went to retrieve the things they were asked to get, Connie walked over to Cal and out her hand in his arm, both watching Ethan as he started to calm down with the medicine they had already pumped into his system, a tube going from around his head to his nose to do something Cal knew but didn’t at the moment 

“He’s okay now, we got to him quick enough” Connie said quietly as she also watched Robyn and Rita administ more medicine. 

“Yeah.. yeah I-“ Cal nodded slightly, putting his hands on the side of his head as he took a deep breath in. 

“He’s going to be asleep for a while until the medicine kicks in and then he will wake up all healthy, but we might have to keep him here for the night” Connie said quietly, as if she was afraid to wake Ethan up, which wouldn’t happen with the meds. 

Cal sighed and nodded, not wanting to keep Ethan in but knowing it was best for him.


End file.
